Moon Magic

This is the fifth special edition in The Secrets of Droon, a children's fantasy series in which three kids from the Upper World (Earth) travel through a magical staircase to the world of Droon, where they have adventures alongside wizards, sorcerers, and other magical beings. In previous books, Eric Hinkle, one of the main characters, lost his wizard powers as the price for using the magic staff of Salamandra, the thorn queen, to save his friends.

The story opens with Eric tumbling into the Portal of Ages, a spinning time-storm that connects different times and places across Droon and the Upper World. Moments earlier, Eric and his friends, Princess Keeah (a young wizard and heir to Droon's throne), Julie, and Neal, were battling Gethwing, a four-winged moon dragon, on a mountaintop. Salamandra conjured the Portal and stood by as the dragon hurled the children in. She tells them they are each on quests, two in the past and two in the future, and urges Eric to treat it as a puzzle he must solve to save Droon. She whispers a mysterious word, "Reki-ur-set," claiming it is in his own language, though he cannot decipher it. With three quick blasts of wind, Salamandra sends Eric, Keeah, and Gethwing in separate directions and Neal and Julie together. Despite being separated, Eric, Keeah, and Gethwing all land in the same place.

Eric finds himself alone on a barren, gray landscape with dark plains, distant black mountains, and a swamp of oil-colored water. He worries about the crisis in the present: Emperor Ko, the ruler of the beasts, is marching his armies toward Jaffa City, Droon's royal capital. Keeah emerges from the swamp and pulls Eric underwater to hide as Gethwing glides overhead. After the dragon passes, Eric spots a tiny blue light on a distant mountaintop, and they set out toward it.

Neal and Julie land in a lush, moonlit forest. They spot an invisible, giant-sized being leaving a smell of smoke and follow it using Neal's genie flying powers, but they lose it and stumble into a grove with a forge. Julie deduces they are in the Upper World, centuries in the past, at the place where the Moon Medallion, a powerful artifact containing Queen Zara's wizard magic, was originally created. Zara, the Queen of Light, enters wearing silver armor. Young Galen, Zara's middle son, swings down from a vine, and his older brother Urik arrives carrying baby Sparr, Zara's youngest. Julie realizes the invisible creature is Saba, Ko's phantom scout, sent to spy on Zara's family; this is how Ko discovers Zara and later comes to the Upper World to kidnap her. The three wizards combine their powers and blast Saba from the grove.

Eric and Keeah reach the mountaintop after hours of zigzagging to evade Gethwing. What Eric thought was a cave is a circle of tall stones with blue-tipped flames inside, a forge bridged by an anvil-like stone. They find Kem, Sparr's aged two-headed dog, and then Sparr himself, extremely old, his silver hair hanging long and his sorcerer fins (bat-like structures that once marked his beastly past) completely gone. He has been working alone in the Underworld, the subterranean realm beneath Droon, for 50 years. Eric sees the shimmering image of Zara rise from the fire and guide Sparr's hands, though Keeah cannot see her. Keeah deduces Salamandra sent them to the future to find the final piece of the Moon Medallion.

In the past, Zara forges a silver disk under moonlight and declares the Moon Medallion finished. Julie realizes the Medallion must have four parts, one from Zara and one from each of her three sons, and its true power will emerge only when all pieces unite. Saba attacks again, knocking Zara down and revealing he has kidnapped baby Sparr. Zara throws the Medallion into the air, causing an explosion of silver light. Magical visions fly from it: images of future Medallion pieces called the Ring of Midnight, the Pearl Sea, and a star-shaped object. A wingsnake snatches baby Sparr, while Saba grabs the Medallion and vanishes. Zara and Galen chase the wingsnake, while Urik, Neal, and Julie pursue Saba.

In the Underworld, Sparr reveals his creation: the Twilight Star, a small, star-shaped silver object that shifts between three and 30 points. Eric intuits that his friends are simultaneously in the past collecting the other pieces. Sparr urges them to take the Star back to their present and tells Eric that real power is in the heart. He raises the stone circle into a domed fortress, but Gethwing breaks through. Eric fights without powers, while Sparr drives the dragon back. Gethwing overpowers them, burying Sparr and Kem under collapsed stones and flinging Keeah away. Sparr leaps up one final time, fingers blazing, and launches himself at the dragon. A massive fireball explodes, and Sparr, clutching Gethwing with Kem biting the dragon's ears, plummets off the summit into the abyss. The Twilight Star comes spinning up from the depths, and Eric catches it.

In the past, Urik, Julie, and Neal track Saba to a phantom purple palace bearing Ko's symbol. Inside, a pool of smoke leads to Droon's Dark Lands. When Saba raises the Medallion over the pool, the three ambush him and Urik snatches the Medallion. They flee as the palace dissolves. In the forest, Urik holds an apple in moonlight, transforming it into a round, pearly stone with wave-like motion inside. Neal names it the Pearl Sea. Galen returns with baby Sparr, safe. Urik gives the Medallion and Pearl Sea to Neal and Julie, and the Portal of Ages sweeps the two children through time.

Eric and Keeah emerge from the Underworld into a Droon 50 years in the future. Jaffa City's towers are charred black, and Ko's flag flies over the gates. In a cabin in the ruined Farne Woods, an extremely old Galen explains that Ko conquered Jaffa City and stole the Medallion decades ago. Keeah's parents, King Zello and Queen Relna, died during the wars, and Keeah collapses in grief. They find the older Queen Keeah, still young-looking because she is a droomar, a magical race that ages far more slowly than ordinary humans. She reveals that Prince Eric, Eric's future self, is imprisoned in the palace dungeons.

The rescue party infiltrates the city through tidal tunnels. In the courtyard, beasts are erecting a giant hammer to destroy the Ring of Midnight, the last intact Medallion piece. Eric finds Prince Eric bound in chains. As the hammer descends toward the Ring, Eric runs for it, and suddenly he flies, his powers restored. He snatches the Ring an instant before the hammer strikes. Prince Eric's powers also reactivate. Together with the two Keeahs, a band of Ninns (large, red-faced warrior creatures who once served Sparr), and Galen, they fight the beasts into retreat and prepare to return to the present.

The four children reunite before the real, gleaming Jaffa City and combine their pieces. As Ko's armies approach, Galen assembles all four parts. A column of silver light shoots between the Medallion and the moon, and a perfect illusion of Jaffa City rises over a frozen lake. Ko's army storms the phantom city. Galen deactivates the Medallion, the illusion dissolves, the lake unfreezes, and thousands of beasts plunge into the water. An underground spring erupts, hurling Ko's forces back toward the Dark Lands. The real Jaffa City stands untouched.

Salamandra appears and insists the Medallion pieces must return to the times they were borrowed from. As Galen complies, a lone figure staggers toward them: Sparr, alive but blind, his cloak glowing like embers. He hands the Twilight Star to Galen, completing the Medallion, and warns that Gethwing is only nursing his wounds and that the Medallion's great trial has not yet come. Sparr departs northward with Kem guiding him, saying he hears Zara calling. Eric, Julie, and Neal return home, and Eric reflects on the unresolved mysteries but is deeply glad his wizard powers have finally returned.